


The Amulet Chose

by AutumnMelancholy



Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Mild Language, Trollhunter Eli Pepperjack
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:13:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23792134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutumnMelancholy/pseuds/AutumnMelancholy
Summary: Eli had seen it again. The blue glint.He looked around the canal one last time before he dropped to his knees and started to remove chunks of rock from the pile, carelessly tossing them to the side. Something was here, something important, and Eli absolutely had to find it before anyone else.—-Eli Pepperjack always knew that there was something supernatural residing within his town. He just didn’t know that it needed protecting.**ON HIATUS UNTIL I GET MY SHIT TOGETHER**
Relationships: Eli Pepperjack & Original Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	The Amulet Chose

_ Tick. Tick. Tick. _

Time was running out.

_ Tick. Tick. Tick. _

Kanjigar the Courageous knew his time was just about to end, long before he confronted Bular within the canal that morning.

Eli Pepperjack didn’t have a clue that his time was just about to start as he observed the battle between the two magnificent  _ real  _ stone creatures that morning.

_ Tick. Tick. Tick. _

The Trollhunter fought bravely and honorably during his last battle, even though he knew that he had no chance at making it out alive.

The nerdy conspiracy theorist clicked as many pictures as his shaky hands could, barely able to contain the fear and excitement he felt.

_ Tick. Tick. Tick. _

It was only when the armored stone creature turned into stone and was smashed to bits right in front of him that Eli knew that his time there had to end. As he fled, the enraged roar of the stone creeper echoing behind him, Eli couldn’t help but look back one last time.

He only had a brief glimpse but even with his terrible eyesight, he couldn’t miss the blue glint that he spotted among the stone remains. Yet the excitement he felt earlier had faded into fear by now, and even he knew better than to go back to the place where a gigantic, angry creeper remained.

So he ran back home, even as the mysterious pull in his chest told him to return.

_ Tick. Tick. Tick. _

\---

It was beyond him as to how Eli managed to have any hint of a dream within the thirty minutes of sleep he had managed to catch after he had returned home earlier that morning.

As soon as he had examined the (mostly blurry) photos he took of those creepers, Eli had fallen right asleep. In his dream — could Eli even consider it a dream? It was ominous enough to be more of a nightmare — he was back in the canal, standing underneath the overhead of the bridge. He was scared out of his wits as threatening growls and insulting jeers taunted him from the nearby shadows; fear kept his feet stoned to the ground as he desperately squinted at the darkness around him, looking for something. It was only a grim sense of time running out that kept him from curling up into a ball. Oddly enough, that feeling was still with him as he opened his eyes and saw that his computer screen read five-fifty AM.

So now here he was, rushing around his house in a flurry to get ready for school and  _ not  _ break his so-far perfect attendance schedule. He had already showered and dressed earlier that morning, so the only thing left to do was to eat the breakfast his mom had prepared and pack the necessary books and supplies he needed for the school day.

When all was said and done, Eli rushed out to his garage and unlocked his bike before opening the garage door. He bounced up and down impatiently, listening to the mechanical whir, and cursed himself for sleeping through his alarm.

Eli didn’t want to waste any more time than he already had and just for a moment, he regretted going out to the canal that morning and coming upon the fighting creepers.

The canal….

Eli stomped down on his breaks and came to a screeching halt on the sidewalk. Looking to his right, he realized that he was just about to ride past the place he had visited that morning. But that wasn’t why he had stopped.

He had seen it again. The blue glint.

Eli gripped his handlebars tightly. Once again, he felt the curious urge to venture into the canal and explore the remains of the stone monster, to find the thing that he had seen glow blue on its wearer’s chest. Eli shook his head and prepared to go off again. Tragically, he didn’t have time to spare for exploring. Heck, school started in, like, ten minutes! But….

Eli took a deep breath and aimed his bike sideways, pushing with his foot until he reached the edge and carefully let himself roll down the slope of the canal with a terrified squeak. Curiosity didn’t  _ have  _ to kill the cat today, right?

“I’m gonna die **I’m gonna die** _ I’m gonna die _ I’m gonna die ,” Eli whimpered. He looked around the canal wildly for the other creeper that possibly still lurked here as he slid to a halt in front of the pile of debris. He set his bike down beside him, swallowing nervously, and cautiously crept forward.

He looked around the canal one last time before he dropped to his knees and started to remove chunks of rock from the pile, carelessly tossing them to the side. Something was here, something important, and Eli  _ had  _ to find it before anyone else.

His hand came across something smooth and cool to the touch and before he even looked at it, he knew he had found what he was looking for.

Eli withdrew his hand and with tensed shoulders slowly opened his palm. It was the glowing blue object he had seen on the armored monster! Eli recalled just then that the two stone monsters had been shouting at each other about surrendering some sort of amulet. No doubt about it:  _ this  _ was the amulet that they had been shouting about. But why?

He tilted his head to the side, relaxing.

“Huh.”

Eli brought it close to his face to get a proper look at it, adjusting his glasses. At first glance, it looked more like an oversized pocket watch rather than an amulet. Close up, Eli could now see that it was made up of many strange parts: the outer circle of it had a foreign language etched around it that Eli had never seen before and there were several hideous designs of monsters carved into the shiny, silver metal. More familiarly, there was a transparent, blue jewel that made up the middle that seemed to glow brightly.

Who the heck made this? Was this even possible to make? Eli lifted it to his ear, half expecting to hear a humming sound or something.

_ Elijah. Pepperjack. _

Eli wasn’t, however, expecting to hear a booming voice shout his name. At all.

He screamed, loudly, and fell backward, dropping the amulet back into the rock pile. Eli’s head hit the floor hard and he saw stars for a second. Panting frantically, he quickly stood back up and his head whipped up, furiously eyeing the concrete ramps above him.  _ What the heck was that? _

Eli came to the most logical conclusion that his mind could provide at the moment.  _ It’s the giant stone creeper from earlier! It's come back to kill me as well! _

_ Elijah. Pepperjack. _

Eli screamed again, covering his ears. His head felt like it was going to split open, right then and there, just from how loud it was! More importantly,  _ it knew his name?! _

“I’m sorry!” He cried pitifully. “I shouldn’t have come here! I’m sorry!!”

Out of pure, stupid panic, Eli snatched up the amulet from the pile and yanked his bike back up to get the heck out of there before he became that big monster’s breakfast. He raced up the side of the canal as fast as he could and pedaled like mad to school, leaving the pile behind him.

The canal was quiet once more.

For about 30 seconds.

Just then, a teenage boy wearing a blue jacket jumped over the side of the canal from the forest, soaring high above the concrete in a fleeting moment of glory and anxiety-free bliss. Just as quickly as he had jumped, he was back on the ground again. The boy skidded to a halt and called out to his best friend impatiently.

“C’mon, Tobes!”

The two teenagers, who narrowly missed Eli’s discovery, briefly stopped to comment on the pile of k-spar below the bridge, chalking it up to being caused by an earthquake that night. They rode off once more, also missing the two stone creatures hiding in the sewers, commonly known as  _ trolls _ , while on their way to school.

Said two trolls had witnessed both the death of their previous Trollhunter hours prior and the skinny human boy be claimed by the amulet.

Blinky, heartbroken over losing one of his best friends, wouldn’t have believed what he had just seen had he and his companion not been eye-witnesses to both shocking events.

“It chose...a human?!” Blinky gasped, six eyes wide in disbelief.

\---

Eli managed to get to school on time, the only downsides to his successful escape being that he was sweating like crazy and his ankles hurt. But he would gladly accept those sacrifices in exchange for his life.

On another note: Eli couldn’t get the amulet out of his mind. It surely didn’t help that the object was currently stuffed in his open backpack while he wrote down notes for Mr. Strickler’s AP World History class. Any attention he had was hyper-fixated on what happened that morning. First the fighting creepers, then finding the weird but cool looking amulet they had been fighting over, then having that amulet  _ talk  _ to you!

It wasn’t until Eli had taken a moment to calm down and catch his breath when he finally realized that the deep voice that had said his name hadn’t come from the scary stone creature: it had come from the  _ amulet _ .

Not that it made the whole situation any less creepy — it made it even more creepy in Eli’s humble opinion because, well,  _ talking inanimate object anyone? _ _ — _ but at least Eli had made it to class on time.

Eli decided to skip lunch in favor of going to the library to do some research, though it did help that Steve demanded he hands over his lunch money. None of the news articles Eli pulled up mentioned anything about fighting trolls or concrete piles under bridges, which Eli was expecting but still disappointed at. He tried to sign in to his online forum about the supernatural to talk about what happened to his fellow users but it was blocked on the school computers.

He settled on entering various forms of “talking blue magical amulet arcadia oaks” into his search engine as a last effort attempt. Eli didn’t know what he was expecting but by the assorted photos about plushies and toys, it was clear that no one had seen something like this before. The bell rang before Eli could do much else and he endured the rest of the school day feeling frustrated and even more perplexed about the object.

After his last hour, Eli was lost in thought while collecting the things he needed from his locker, eager to get home and explore his finding more when he was suddenly shoved from behind. Eli yelped in shock and whipped around, half expecting to see a large, nasty creeper with stone skin and red eyes. He found himself eyes to chest with Steve Palchuk instead.

Much more believable than a creeper, but just as nasty. And irritated, by the looks of it. He realized that Steve had bumped into him while walking by and Eli had overreacted, like a moron. Eli laughed nervously, putting his things back inside and rubbing the back of his neck.

Oops.

Steve, obviously in a bad mood, grabbed Eli by his shirt collar and pinned him against the lockers. “Hey,  _ dweeb _ . You have something to say to me?”

“I’m sorry,” Eli blurted, putting his hands up in front of him. “I thought that you were a monster!”

Of course, Eli had to say the wrong thing. Of  _ course _ .

Steve glowered, glaring furiously at him as Eli retraced his words. “No, like, a real monster! Like the creepers, I saw in the canal this morning! Scary and nasty and...creepy.”

Eli needed to shut the hell up, right now. But it was too late.

Steve glared at him for a second more before sneering gleefully. “Oh, creepy, huh?”

Eli swallowed and opened his mouth to quickly apologize, but the damage was already done. Steve yanked him up like a mere weight and nodded his head at one of his buddies. Eli regretted running his mouth like never before as his locker door popped open with ease.

Eli’s small, frail figure made it easy for Steve to stuff him snuggly into the small space. For the umpteenth time, Eli slumped back as Steve and his fellow friends cruelly laughed at him before slamming the door right on his face.

Eli sat back uncomfortably, his knees squished against his glasses, as Steve and his goons coaxed the details of his story out of him and laughed at how ridiculous he sounded.

“Stone for skin? Man, Eli, you’ve got some imagination!”

Eli curled in on himself and closed his eyes miserably, neck burning red. “But I didn’t imagine it,” he whispered to himself stubbornly. His eyes flicked up, peeping out of the gaps in his locker.

In the background, he saw his classmates Darci Scott and Mary Wang grouped on the opposite side of the clearing. They laughed at something on Mary’s phone, unaware of the racket Steve was making. He noticed Jim and his friend Toby Domzalski walking by on their bikes. Jim frowned at what was happening and almost looked like he was going to intervene before Toby tugged his arm, shaking his head in disapproval and saying something that made Jim continue walking after a guilty glance over his shoulder. Other students passed by , talking with each other and joking around as they went out the school gates.

Eli sighed helplessly, the outside light shining through and reflecting off of his glasses as no one came to his rescue, again. Not that he could blame them. He didn’t want to confront Steve Palchuk either or he would have done so himself a long time ago.

A booming shout from his gym teacher interrupted the trio’s taunting. “Palchuk!”

_ Yes! Saved by Coach Lawrence! I can’t believe I said that... _

“Why aren’t you at practice?!”

“Sorry, Coach,” Steve said uncertainly, the malice in his voice suddenly gone. “I, uh, I was helping Eli here.”

The locker door swung open, and Eli was in full view of the outside world once more. “He got stuck.”

Eli rolled his eyes at the blatant lie. Coach didn’t seem to care either way.

Eli heard him shout, “On the double! Now!” before Steve turned and gave Eli a filthy glare. Steve stalked off with Logan and Seamus at his heel, slamming the door behind him. Thankfully it bounced against Eli’s shoe and swung right back open, not trapping him inside like last time.

Eli kept still until he was sure that Steve was far away from him, no doubt off to go practice on the field. He sighed in relief before grabbing the sides of his locker and pushing forward. Eli yelped and tumbled to the ground ungracefully, his books and pencils falling on top of him. “I’m OK!” He called out to no one in particular, for one glance-around revealed that the campus was empty.

Humiliated and alone, Eli made quick work of putting everything away before slamming his locker shut and scurrying to the bike rack, eager to get home.

\---

“What do you want from me?”

….

“He said, to the inanimate object.”

Eli laid down on his stomach, now stretched across his bed as he glared down the amulet, ignoring the confused looks his dad and younger sister gave him from the doorway. He sighed in annoyance and rolled onto his back. He had gotten home not so long ago and now interrogated the amulet, eager to hear it talk again. But thirty minutes later, the object remained stubbornly unresponsive and Eli felt ticked enough to chuck it out the window.

“Oh, come on!” he said, sitting up and slamming his hand down onto the amulet. Eli brought it up to his face aggressively and struck up a conversation once more: “If you don’t talk to me again, I’m going to  _ microwave  _ you.”

No response came and his little sister, Evelyn Pepperjack, strolled into his room, sat down on his chair, and spun in circles a few times before offering some constructive criticism: “Not to be a downer but you sound like an idiot. That piece of crap won’t talk to you even if you enchanted it.”

“I don’t what to be scolded by someone who wants to commit arson one day.”

“At least  _ I’m  _ ambitious. And realistic. Do you have any spare Nuget Nummies? I’m hungry.”

“They’re in the bottom drawer to the left. Take too many and I’ll strangle you.”

She snickered, not unlike Steve before he stuffs Eli into the nearest locker, and squatted down to take the entire stash. “Where’d that thing come from anyway?”

“It was under the bridge, amongst a pile of rocks. It called to me. It has to be magic!”

“It, it, it.”

“Shut up. You don’t believe me at all do you?”

“Sorry, not sorry, but I think you should go see a therapist. Remember Mr. Clay? I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you again!”

“Get out of my room if you don’t have anything helpful to say.” He looked up. “Hey, I said don’t take too many!”

She was out of his room in a heartbeat, no doubt to gobble the candy bars in her room.  _ She’s too spoiled… _

Eli looked at the amulet again now that he wasn’t distracted.

….

Eli tossed it into the microwave and put it on high for ten solid minutes.

Three minutes in, he sat in a chair with an open notebook and a pen to see if and how long it would react to high heat for an extended period. Might as well write down any possible abnormal results, right?

Five minutes in, it didn’t do anything. Eli cursed at it from where he sat, before apologizing to no one in particular.

Seven minutes in, his father went to the store and Evy tagged along with him, promising Eli a pack of Nougat Nummies.

Nine and a half minutes in, Eli was bored and playing on his phone, wondering if he had gone crazy after all.

Eli glanced up and stood as he heard the microwave finish, putting his phone to the side. Eli armed himself with an oven mitt and opened the door cautiously to peep inside.

It remained intact, disappointingly.

When Eli grabbed it and looked closely for any changes, he soon realized that his little experiment had produced some interesting results: the metal, while piping hot, hadn’t melted or gotten damaged, proving that it wasn’t just some toy after all. Plus, the amulet was still glowing periodically, so its insides hadn’t melted either. Whatever it was, it was made to withstand long periods of heat.

That was slightly cool, Eli had to ironically admit, but it brought up a new question: what else was it made to stay safe from?

\---

“Alright, I give in,” Eli huffed, tossing the amulet onto his bed and slumping down into a chair. “You are indestructible.”

Three hours. Eli spent three hours of his time conducting various experiments on the amulet. Ranging from being run over by a car (with the help of his neighbor) to being dunked into dry ice (provided by his neighbor) to even having acid dripped onto it (how does his helpful neighbor get this stuff?). The amulet didn’t break or show any signs of sustained damage. It was impossibly indestructible to the point where Eli was beginning to think that it was actually made from magic.

Looking at his computer screen showed that it was about thirty minutes until Eli had to go to bed. He still had his homework, and Steve’s, to do and he hadn’t even showered, much less eaten the tacos that Dad had gotten from Stuart’s food truck. Any further experiments would have to wait until the next day.

Eli chose a pair of pajamas from his closet and grabbed the amulet again, staring at it one last time before putting it onto his desk. He mentally promised himself that he’d put it away somewhere safe before he proceeded with his shower.

_ Elsewhere that evening... _

Jim chopped up a line of carrots for steaming while simultaneously preparing himself for Senior Uhl’s upcoming oral presentation. He yawned and rubbed the bags under his eyes as he opened the oven to check on the cooking chicken inside. With two more homework assignments to finish, as well as researching Shakespeare's  _ Romeo & Juliet _ , Jim already knew that he wouldn’t get any sleep tonight.

Toby cheered as he finished a level of his Gun Robot video game. Having eaten dinner early that evening and deciding to finish his homework tomorrow, he grabbed a Nougat Nummy bar and tore it open while waiting for the next level to load. Toby stood up, brushing crumbs off his vest as he walked to his window and looked over at Jim’s house. He watched as his best friend struggled to finish an assignment, the sun already set.  _ Poor Jimbo. He’s gonna be tired tomorrow too. _

Steve let out an angry shout as he slammed his door shut. He stalked around his room, steaming and growling before punching his bed frame, ignoring the pain that shot through his knuckles and up his arm.  _ Stupid school, stupid progress report, stupid  _ mom. Steve blinked back the frustrated tears that welled in his eyes and punched the frame again. He couldn’t  _ wait  _ to graduate high school and get out of this town.

Claire Nu ñez messed up her line again. She scoffed and snatched her preplanned lines off of her bed, glaring over the sheet yet again. Darci gently told her best friend not to stress too much, Mary told her to chill, and  Enrique, her baby brother, giggled from Darci’s arms as he bounced up and down. Claire ignored them.  _ I have to get this audition right. I  _ have  _ to! _ The girls on the bed looked at each other in concern; they knew all too well how worked up Claire could get if she thought she couldn’t do something perfectly.

Evelyn Pepperjack sighed and gave in to her artists’ block. She slammed her sketchbook and chucked it onto the nearest hard surface.  _ Whatever. I have to get started on today’s assignments anyway.  _ She grabbed her planner from her backpack and opened up her laptop, not giving a second glance at what time it was. Were she at Mom’s house her homework would have been done hours ago. She’d have done it the moment she came home. She opened up her Papa Skull playlist and started her favorite songs with the sound on high. Her bother was asleep by now and Dad knew that she was doing assignments. Not much he could say when he knew he wasn’t strict with her in the first place.

Adrian Pepperjack thought that he could feel the vibrations of someone wandering the house. He took out his earbuds and paused the music he was listening to, leaning back from his laptop to look at his closed door. He now heard the creaking slow drastically, becoming a slight pressure. Was that Eli? Why is he being so quiet? He glanced at the time and saw how late it was, near midnight. His son thinks he’s asleep and doesn’t want to wake him up; how sweet. Smiling, Adrian put his earbuds back in and unpaused what he was listening to. If only his daughter had that level of consideration.

\---

Blinky, one of the trolls who witnessed the events of that morning, carefully snuck around the new Trollhunter’s house, halting every time he heard a squeak. He had taken it upon himself to watch the new Trollhunter throughout the day and if he were being honest, what he had witnessed didn’t raise his confidence about the reliability of this “Elijah Leslie Pepperjack''. Blinky had hoped to confront him that night but he and his family had been everywhere. He heard the Trollhunter making a racket well into the evening and witnessed him performing truly horrifying acts unto the amulet. A few times he found himself wondering whether Elijah would break the ancient object. Thank Bushigal he didn’t.

AAARRRGGHH!!! had agreed to stay outside and wait for him as Blinky explored the Pepperjack residence. He examined the bookshelves, the fridge, the living room, the cat that snarled at him when he got too close. Well, maybe not the cat as much.

Now the troll had reached the hallway, careful not to make too much noise. He eyed a framed photo at the top of the stairway before looking into the first room he came across; the lights were left on and the door was wide open on its hinges. It was there where he found the one he was looking for.

Elijah Leslie Pepperjack, the first human Trollhunter in history, the next destined protector of both human and trollkind alike, was sound asleep on his bed.

The boy was curled up into a ball on his side, as snug as a bug. His blankets were all over his bed and splayed on top of them were several open school books and some other items, one of which was the Amulet of Merlin. Blinky gasped in relief as he saw it, still in one piece and still with the human. It hadn’t been a mistake: the amulet was no doubt connected to this boy now.

Blinky couldn’t help but feel pity for Elijah; he was just a welp after all, much too young to have such a responsibility bestowed upon him.

Yet the feeling passed as the troll caught sight of the state that the boy’s books were in. One book was splayed across its back, held open by a larger book, while another was practically split open from its spine.

“Great Gronka Morka! Does he treat all books this way?”

Blinky instinctively started to gather them up, grumbling about not letting Elijah get his hands on any of the 47 volumes of  _ A Brief Recapitulation of Troll Lore _ if this was how he’d treat them. He stacked them neatly on his desk and crossed his arms approvingly. “Better. Though, I really should get going now.”

It appeared that the boy wasn’t going to wake up any time soon.

Blinky carefully stepped down the stairs again, thinking to himself,  _ Rest up while you can, Trollhunter, for you have a great destiny to fulfill, and it will be no easy task. _

\---

Thankfully, Eli didn’t sleep through his alarm that morning. Not that he wanted to wake up in the first place.

“No.”

Rays of early morning sunshine peeped through the curtains, urging him to stay awake.

“Nooooooooooo.”

Eli rolled onto his back and squinted up at the ceiling irritably.

“Nooooouuuuuuuhhhhhhhh.”

Eli yawned mid-protest, stretching his arms and legs out luxuriously. He made a clumsy grab for his glasses and pushed them on before stopping the alarm.

“It’s too early for this nonsense,” Eli pouted. He rolled onto his side and found himself reaching for the Amulet. “And you…”

“How did you get onto my desk?”

Wait.

Eli ran his fingers over the spine of his biology textbook

“My books, too?”

Eli frowned, certain that he’d gone to sleep with his books all strewn about. Did his dad come in here at one point?

Eli reminded himself to thank him later.

Or now, depending on the hyperactive, “KITTY KITTY KITTY KITTY KITTY KITTY!!” he was hearing from outside his room. The smell of breakfast and the sound of running footsteps suggested that his dad decided on an early start today.

Eli sat up and pushed his blankets to the side, feet meeting the floor simultaneously.

He opened up the door, only for the scent of bacon and the blur of his father racing past to hit him like a tornado force wind.

“ELIJAH!”

The sight of his son caused Adrian to ignore the poor cat and make a lunge for him. The teenager yelled in shock as he was swept up in a way reminiscent of a football player tackling a football. He giggled gleefully, shaking Eli back and forth like a rag doll.

“Let go of me! What’s wrong with you?!”

“Coffee!”

“But, you hate coffee.”

“Yup!”

“...OK.”

“And it tastes  _ terrible _ ! Oh, I love love  _ love  _ you!!”

“Let go already!!”

Adrian dropped Eli back onto the ground and slapped his hands onto his shoulders. He opened his mouth.

Then closed it.

He tipped his head back all the way and took a deeeeeeeeeeeep breath.

“Your hair is a mess! You stink of sweat too! Have you taken a shower yet? No?! I remember! When you were a kid, you took showers 24/7 because you said you liked the warm water! Even in the summer, when it was all hot, you took extra long hot showers! It drove your mom CRAZY!! NO, WAIT!!”

His hands shot into the air and he started moving his arms up and down while backing away slowly.

“High. High. High temperature. A fire has a high temperature. Fire. Stovetop. Heated stovetop. Cooking. Cooking food. Bacon. BACON!!”

His eyes widened comically.

“THE BACON IS  _ BURNING _ !!”

Just like that, he rocketed into the kitchen with a distraught wail.

“Thanks for cleaning up after me,” Eli mumbled, not that the man could hear him.

“False alarm! The bacon is fine!”

Eli rolled his eyes.

“Take a shower! I’ll make us eggs too!”

What a complete and utter blockhead.

Eli sighed and walked into the bathroom just as Evelyn stalked out, donning a fresh stain that glowed vividly orange against her white shirt and a rather filthy glare. It looked as if she tried to rub the stain, no doubt caused by their energetic father, with a water-soaked towel before she gave up.

“Good morning, Evy. Nice to see you on this fine day.”

“Die.”

“I feel great, thank you for asking,” he sighed as Evy turned to her bedroom to get a new shirt, cursing up a storm that would earn her a smack from Mom were she here.

—-

AAARRRGGHH!!! wandered over to his partner, cradling a stack of various scrolls in his arm. He dropped them onto a nearby stone slab, where Blinky was hunched over two thick books.

“Thank you, my friend,” Blinky mused while frantically skimming through the pages with his six eyes. AAARRRGGHH!!! watched him warily as Blinky suddenly snapped both books shut.

“Nothing!” Blinky exclaimed. “I’ve double-checked all forty-seven volumes of  _ A Brief Recapitulation of Troll Lore,  _ yet no passage or paragraph mention the Amulet choosing a  _ human  _ in the entirety of its existence!”

Blinky tossed both books onto the slab, causing the scrolls and other items to be knocked to the floor in a flurry of ink and paper.

“Not good,” AAARRRGGHH!!! rumbled.

“My dear AAARRRGGHH!!!, this human welp has become the first human Trollhunter in history,” Blinky said, rubbing his strained eyes. “And he has never been in more danger before now.”

“Bular?” AAARRRGGHH!!! guessed.

“Correct. The son of Gunmar will no doubt continue his search for Merlin’s Amulet and its wearer.” Blinky paced back and forth as he spoke, hands clasped behind his back. “Yet why does he seek the Amulet so desperately?

“No matter, the boy stands no chance against Bular in his current state. He’ll be devoured in a heartbeat, a fate more gruesome than Kanjigar’s! We must bring him here to train before —”

“What of my father’s fate?”

The multi-armed troll stopped dead and they turned to see Draal, the son of the previous Trollhunter. He ducked his head to avoid scraping his horns on the library’s entrance and looked toward them with a concerned look on his face.

“It’s been over a day since he left for his hunt but he still has not returned.” Draal looked between them. “Do you carry news of him?”

Blinky and AAARRRGGHH!!! looked at each other nervously. They had been so preoccupied with watching over that human boy and fussing about the Amulet that they forgot to break the news of Kanjigar’s demise to anyone, much less his own son.

Oops.

Blinky faced him and cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Well, Draal, I — we regretfully inform you that Kanjigar was...felled in battle.”

Draal opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He breathed in slowly, looking from Blinky to AAARRRGGHH!!!, but their expressions held the truth. His head lowered and his shoulders sagged. AAARRRGGHH!!! thought that he could see tears welling in his eyes.

“Died..a hero,” AAARRRGGHH!!! said gently.

“His death was noble,” Blinky added, “and most certainly heroic. Kanjigar’s sacrifice protected the Amulet from Bular, lest he takes it for his evil ambitions. Despite its inaccessibility…”

Draal’s stance straightened upon mention of the Amulet. His vulnerability faded as he once again discovered his purpose.

“Of course. I must resume my training.” He looked from one troll to the other, his voice building. “As the son of the greatest Trollhunter who ever lived, I will surely be chosen by the Amulet as its successor. Draal the Deadly vows to don his father's armor and visit revenge upon his killer!”

With that, Draal turned around and started for the Hero’s Forge before Blinky or AAARRRGGHH!!! could correct him. The trolls wore troubled faces as they watched his leave, an air of enraged confidence behind him.

“Great Gronka Morka?” AAARRRGGHH!!! guessed what Blinky was about to say.

“Precisely.”

—

Adrian drove Eli and Evy to school after breakfast clearly in a good mood as he chattered on about a new employee at the bookstore with a cute black cat. Eli stared out the window of the passenger seat, blankly thinking of the Amulet, while Evy curled up with her math homework, scribbling down some half-assed answers and cursing whenever they hit a bump.

He decided to keep the Amulet at his father's house because he didn’t trust it to be at school with him. He didn’t want Steve, or anyone else, to steal such an interesting object from him, something he still knew next to nothing about.

“I won’t be at home after school,” Adrian said, pulling up after the previous car. “You’ll need your key if you want to enter the house.”

“Don’t worry, I have mine,” Eli reassured him, in the process of gathering his things.

His dad smiled chipperly and leaned over to kiss his forehead. “I’ll see you later, Peps.”

“You too.”

“Yeah, bye Eli. Hey, you’re a geek; what’s 2 _ x _ plus 12 if  _ x  _ is-”

Eli unbuckled himself and stepped out of the car, slamming the door shut behind him.

He wasn't any more than five steps away when Steve miraculously caught up and swung an arm over his shoulders. Eli’s heart dropped into his chest and he swallowed audibly.

“Hey, Steve,” he tried, unable to sound any more displeased than he already was to see him.  _ So early in the morning, too? _

“Heya,  _ Pepperbuddy, _ ” Steve greeted with a voice that was anything but friendly. “How’s your morning, pal?”

“It was going decently.”

They walked like that into the school, far longer than Eli thought was necessary. Steve guided the brunette to his locker only to remove his arm from its iron grip around Eli and aggressively shove him forward.

“Now, I believe you have something of mine.”

Eli grinned out of habit, anything to keep Steve satisfied, and reached into his backpack.

“Oh, of course!” He rummaged about, fear causing his hands to shake _. _ “Here.”

Eli pulled out a printed report and held it out as respectfully as he could. Steve snatched it out of his hands and started to skim over it, looking for an excuse to punish him. “You better not have added any big words, buttsnack. That’s not my forte and you know it.”

“I—I didn’t, I would never do that,” Eli stammered. At least, he didn't think he did.

Steve glared down at him before he stepped forward,  _ way  _ into Eli’s personal space for his liking, and slammed both of his arms over his head. Eli cringed, cowering into himself as Steve loomed over him.

“I better get an A on this,” Steve threatened, face so close that Eli could feel his breath, “or you’re  _ toast _ . You got that, Buttsnack?”

“Of course.” His voice cracked.

Their little staring contest continued uncomfortably. Then Steve leaned back and turned away from him. Eli didn’t dare move as Steve strolled over to the school entrance, greeting some friends along the way as they entered together.

Eli leaned his head back and closed his eyes, sighing in relief.

_ Coward. _

He faced his locker and opened it up, unloading the supplies he needed for the school day. He cringed as he heard the laughter of some boys nearby.

_ They are  _ not _ laughing at me,  _ he mentally scolded himself _. They didn’t see what happened. They wouldn’t even care if they did see. _

Someone was walking by him, he could hear their footsteps. They stopped suddenly, right behind him.

_ No, they didn’t. Just mind your own business. Not everything is about you. _

_ Just ignore it. Ignore it. _

_ Just… _

“Eli?”

Eli turned around with a startled gasp, only to see his classmate and fellow drama club member, Claire Nuñez, smiling kindly at him.

“Uh.”

“Good morning!”

Claire laughed and tilted her head to the side, still smiling. “You OK? I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Eli babbled for a few moments. “Yeah, uh. No! You didn’t. I was just off in my head. Eh…”

He trailed off in embarrassment, his face turning red.  _ Another overreaction? Do I have a screw loose or what? Seriously. _

Claire, being the closest person to a saint Eli’s ever known, didn’t seem to mind. She leaned against the locker next to him as he grabbed a notebook for the first hour of the day.

“So, about  _ Romeo and Juliet. _ Have you found anyone willing to audition?”

Eli brightened at the subject change. “I gave Shannon a flyer yesterday, so she might be there.”

“That’s progress!”

“I don’t know. I can’t find guys who are willing to give any thought to be in the play. Some students might have to take on two roles.”

“I gave Steve a flyer but I think he’s too preoccupied with football season. And after that, a nice boy came right up to me asking about Shakespeare.” She giggled, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear. “His Spanish needed work though.”

“A nice boy who likes Shakespeare?”

“I think his name was John. No, wait. Was it James? We have World History together.”

“Jim Lake?”

“Yeah, that’s it!”

“I didn’t know he liked Shakespeare…”

Their conversation ended as they entered the classroom. Claire left to sit with her friends while Eli wandered to a front-row seat by the window. He kept his head down and opened his textbook to the pages written on the board, not saying a word. The usual feeling of loneliness blossomed in his chest; at that moment, he wanted nothing more than to have friends of his own to talk to, people who genuinely liked him.

But Eli turned toward the window with a sigh and gazed out over the street, awaiting the start of class.

—

Eli trudged through his day, unaware of the events going into motion from the shadows.

Blinky and AAARRRGGHH!!! were at a loss for what to do. Who knows how Draal will react to the news that a human now owned the amulet and not himself? Blinky could only hope that they could gain the humans' trust and then train him to at least survive an inevitable encounter with Bular.

What was he thinking? Training or no training, there was no way for this to end well.

“Blinkous Galagrigal.”

The distressed trolls, who had been sneaking off to try to find the human again, had no choice but to stop and face their wise troll leader, Vendel. The elderly troll walked over to them; the expression on his face could only be described as one of displeasure.

“Hello, Vendel,” Blinky greeted, clasping his four hands together while side-eyeing his companion nervously. “Kanjigar’s demise is indeed unfortunate.”

“Indeed,” he said slowly. “That is the subject that I’ve come to discuss with the two of you.”

“Us?”

“I’ve received news from Draal that you witnessed this event firsthand. Is this true?”

AAARRRGGHH!!! nodded his head in confirmation. “Yesterday. Felled by Bular”

“Hmmm, so I’ve heard…”

Blinky and AAARRRGGHH!!! watched as Vendel stroked his beard in deep thought.

“Is that all?” Blinky asked. “If so then we must be off as soon as possible.”

He and AAARRRGGHH!!! had turned away and started to walk off again when Vendel piped up from behind them.

“Where to? It isn’t yet sunset.”

“Just, um, the forest nearby. To look for…”

“Cats,” AAARRRGGHH!!! finished.

“You wouldn’t happen to have seen the Amulet, would you?”

He yanked the hat right off the gnome.

“Of - of course not, Vendel.”

“It’s rather odd for it to have not chosen a predecessor by now,” the troll mused, watching their reactions.

“I would assume that the amulet is just taking its sweet time,” Blinky insisted, “in choosing the right one to protect us all.”

However, AAARRRGGHH!!! didn’t share his friend's certainty and turned away guiltily. Vendel spotted his hesitation and took advantage of it.

“AAARRRGGHH!!!, my dear friend,” he soothes, walking forward to kindly pat his shoulder. “We have known each other for centuries, have we not? Our friendship runs deep, as does our trust.”

AAARRRGGHH!!! rumbled softly, turning to look at him as Blinky watched them both warily.

“You would tell me if there was something important that I needed to know, right?”

AAARRRGGHH!!! glanced back at Blinky, who waved his four hands desperately, before sighing in defeat. He looked at Vendel in the eyes and bluntly said, “Amulet chose human welp.”

Vendel wasn’t expecting that. At all.

“What?!”

He recoiled in shock and stepped away. Blinky face palmed before walking forward to nudge AAARRRGGHH!!! while laughing nervously. Vendel looked between the two of them disbelievingly. “That’s impossible.”

“Vendel...”

“The Amulet has never chosen a human to bear its mantle before!”

“We assure you, our ears listened to its call, our eyes saw its bearer. The Amulet has made its choice, no matter how doubtful it is, and the human has to…”

“Do my ears  _ deceive _ me?”

_ Great Gronka Morka, this just got worse. _

“Draal,” Blinky wheezed just as the  _ very angry _ troll stalked out from the shadows. “Your ears are just fine, I believe.”

“Bushigal!” The troll snarled. “The little fleshbag just managed to snatch it before its call reached me.”

“Amulet chose,” AAARRRGGHH!!! insisted. Blinky crossed his arms.

“We saw it happen ourselves!” Blinky protested. “You doubt our reliability?!”

“As a matter of fact…”

Vendel stroked his beard more and looked between the arguing trio, thinking quickly. This was an event out of the ordinary, the first of its kind, and Vendel would be lying if he said he wasn’t the least bit intrigued by it. A human Trollhunter. The first human Trollhunter.

_ How curious.  _ He wondered what the Amulet had planned for this welp.

“I take it that you, Blinky, know what this welp looks like?”

“Well, yes, somewhat.”

“And you know where he lives? I assume that you were going to visit him just now.”

A fact set in stone. Blinky sagged his shoulders. “Yes, we were.”

Vendel hummed again, then made his decision.

“Blinkous, AAARRRGGHH!!!, after sunset you are to seek out this fleshbag.”

The trolls looked at each other proudly while Draal went wide-eyed with betrayal.

“Draal is to come with you.”

The excitement evaporated and Draal smirked pridefully.

“And I expect the fleshbag to be alive and breathing when you bring him here to Trollmarket.”

“What!?”

“My decision is final.”

Vendel lifted his head and stared down at the younger troll, who sputtered angrily.

“Vendel, don’t be foolish! The fleshbag obviously stole the Amulet for his gain, no different than Bular! I say you let me rip him to pieces and take back what is rightfully mine!”

“You dare defy my word, Draal the Deadly? I said that I want him  _ here _ , alive and breathing.”

The blue spiked troll growled, his fists clenched.

“I will decide his fate, not you,” Vendel warned.

With that, the elder brushed past the three of them and walked into the marketplace.

“Be sure that you are discreet in your search; you wouldn’t want to attract any unwanted attention, especially with Bular stalking about.”

The trolls watched helplessly as their elder bid them farewell before he disappeared into the crowd, no doubt to determine the fate of the amulet and its human welder.

—-

All was quiet in Eli’s room until he slammed it open with a pained groan. He chucked his backpack onto the ground and limped to his bed, knee throbbing. He turned around and sat back slowly, whimpering in pain.

“Stupid Steve,” Eli grumbled.

Eli brought his leg up to look at the damage he’d caused. He squinted at the scraped skin and sighed. It wasn’t bad, nothing that he couldn’t fib to his mom about.

That didn’t stop it from hurting.

“He didn’t need to shove me so hard, not enough for me to fall.”

His voice cracked at the end and he slumped back on the bed, curling into a ball. Eli didn’t like to feel so helpless, even though he knew he was.

_ I can’t even tell him to back off. He does whatever he wants to me and I just take it because I can’t do anything else. I’m too much of a coward. _

“....”

Eli pitied himself for a moment longer before sitting up again. He smiled chipperly and stretched his arms up above his head while kicking his legs out.

“I’m over it! Totally over it!!”

He got to his feet, ignored his scrape, and tumbled down the stairs two at a time. “No time to pout, I have homework to do!”

_ As one could see, Eli wasn’t over his self-deprivation. _

“I wonder if Mom has any ice-cream left?”

_ But he’ll get over it. _

_ Very quickly. _

_ Right about… _

Eli wanders over to the freezer, still feeling like crap, only to hear something strange.

Eli stopped dead, recognizing the sound instantly. Its mannerisms we’re still fresh in his mind.

He closed the freezer gently. But that was impossible. He was at his mom’s house because he’d forgotten his dad’s key after all.

His eyes turned to the side, ever so slightly. He knew that it was at his dad’s house, in the drawer next to his bed. That’s where he kept it; for its safety, he’d never brought it to school.

So why?

Eli turned around fully and found the Amulet on the counter, dinging quietly.

Why was it  _ here? _

“How did you get here?” Eli asked, slowly approaching it. “This is impossible. This is, this...”

His hands were trembling as he reached out and grasped the amulet in his hands. He brought it close to his face.

“What  _ are  _ you?”

Eli gasped as the Amulet’s gem shone brighter and the symbols on it glowed to life. Suddenly its outer ring was spinning like a windup toy, the mechanisms in pursuit. The symbols were somehow changing into different languages.

From Mandarin to Spanish to finally English, the spinning stopped as soon as it started and the words were illuminated for Eli to read.

FOR THE GLORY OF MERLIN, DAYLIGHT IS MINE TO COMMAND, in all bold.

His hands were still shaking but this time from excitement rather than fear.

It was  _ magic,  _ no doubt about it.  _ Supernatural in origin! _

Eli smiled from ear to ear. Then he started to laugh joyously. He pumped his fists into the air and shouted, “I knew it!! Something  _ is  _ going on in this town! I was right all along!”

He stopped himself from spinning around and held the Amulet out triumphantly. The bolded words stood out enchantingly and Eli was compelled to read them in the same way that he wanted the Amulet yesterday morning.

“For the glory of Merlin, daylight is mine to command.”

Right then, Eli was hyper-aware of his environment. The wind howled harder than ever, banging against the windows of his house. His cat yowled from the couch, sensing the energy that crackled in that very room. All around the neighborhood, there was a sudden drop of pressure as the Amulet activated in a way Eli had never seen before.

_ Right about… _

The Amulet shuddered to life and Eli watched it eagerly, still smiling as it glowed brighter than ever before.

_ Now. _

**Author's Note:**

> • I will not be following canon for the majority of this fic, aside from some basic milestones  
> • I posted this a while back and was about three chapters in when I decided to take it down because of my own dissatisfaction with how the story was going; I’m more confident now so it’s back up again  
> • Feedback is welcome and I hope to create something that many will enjoy


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